I sleep very well at night, these days. I make my ablutions, I commit to my prayers. I seek His guidance and His mercy. I take a bath – I slough off the detritus of the day’s struggles. Into bed, and into a book – the words and pages and chapters are a benediction. My evening meditation against the defeats and disappointments of a human existence. Then the words lull me into a welcome embrace – it’s alright. Everything is alright.
Tentang Penjajahan
Ini bukan daerah milikmu lagi. Tanah pamah ini, yang dahulunya kau pijak dan injak – kau tiada berhak lagi. Desir pasir yang kau belai, rerumputan yang kau harung, denyut sungai yang dahulunya kau mudik – kini sudah asing buatmu. Tak lagi memikul beban kehilangan. Tak lagi menzikirkan kepiluan.
Di sini dahulunya kau tanam benih gelisah, maka mekarlah ia, dibajai derita wasangka. Dan seperti setiap sesuatu yang kau tanam – ia menjadi suatu janin yang mati direnggut masa. Tewas tanpa nafas. Kini cuma tinggal nesan yang tersudut sepi – hanya suatu mercu kehampaan yang telah lama aku tinggalkan, telah lama aku kuburkan.
Jangan sangka aku masih terjajah. Aku sudah lama merdeka dari semua sesal lara.
On Artificial Intelligence
The public debut of ChatGPT will, one day, be a fixture of our history books, much like Edison’s light bulb moment, or that first step for mankind on the moon, or Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita as he presided over that first atomic bomb explosion at New Mexico. Seminal moments in human technology and ingenuity that have transformed modern lives beyond what our forefathers could have barely imagined.
No doubt, the ripple waves from this transformation will cascade into our lives, and in unexpected ways. Professors asking their students to quote their ChatGPT prompts in their assignments. Microsoft finally breaking into Google’s effective monopoly for Internet search with chat functionalities. Entire professions – advertising, public relations, accounting, lawyering – which were once the preserve of credentialed white-collar professionals will have to contend with artificial intelligence.
But I think the sense of alarm – watch out, ChatGPT is out to take our jobs! – is exaggerated. Yes, artificial intelligence will change the way we work and live. Yes, the capabilities will undoubtedly improve even more over time.
But have we not seen this before? Didn’t the steam locomotive transform the way we travel, the way we received news? Didn’t the telegraph muster a radical transformation in business, government, in military affairs? Keynes predicted in 1930 that the advent of new technologies would mean that one day we would only need to work for 15 hours a week, at most. (I can almost hear the bitter laughter from my millenial readers.)
The truth is, technology almost always proves the adage that the more things change, the more things stay the same. The white heat of technological advancement in the past century may indeed be transformative, but for as long as those technologies intersect with humans – with human fears and desires and wants – then we will always find some modus vivendi with the new innovations in our lives, however painful that transition process might become.
And if anything, the rise of AI must always remind us to treasure what is most unique about the human experience – our ingenuity, our curiosity, our tenacity, our wilfulness. These technologies will always serve as tools for those very human aspects of our existence.
As we contemplate how AI will change our lives, we cannot be complacent, but neither should we give in to panic. Like all waves of change, they demand that we dig deeper into what it means to be human, and to bring to bear our own unique individual Fitrah in absorbing and adapting to change. Keep calm and carry on – history and technology marches ever onwards, and we will always need to be ready to meet them.
On The State of the Union
For as long as I can remember, I have been an Americophile (yes, apparently it’s a real word!) No surprises there, I suppose – having been born in the United States (both my parents were studying in Louisiana at the time), I have always had sentimental attachment to the USA, even if my own personal memories of my time there as a child was limited to a handful of photographs of my being a toddler.
Growing up in the Reagan era of the 1980s, it was very difficult not to look at America with a sense of admiration. Coca Cola and McDonald’s and Superman were icons that loomed large in our childhood, and the idea of the American Dream was not yet besmirched by the grime of cynicism and disappointment that has been the American legacy of the post-9/11 era.
I grew up reading Spiderman, watching Batman and Superman on the silver screen, and I remember spending my mornings doing my homework while CNN was playing on the morning television broadcast, watching the entire might of the mighty American military being brought down like a sledgehammer onto Saddam Hussein’s Iraq after the latter’s invasion of Kuwait. America was the almighty behemoth of the world, and once the Berlin Wall had fallen, the USA bestrode the globe as an unchallenged colossus – the one and only superpower of the late 20th century.
Going to college, I fell into student politics, and political biographies became my preferred vein of reading material ever since. I came to know FDR and Truman and Eisenhower and Kennedy through McCullough and Schlesinger and many other scholars of American politics. And when Barack Obama ran for the presidency, my abiding interest for American politics kicked up another notch: I started watching Meet The Press on the weekends, trawled through RealClearPolitics and the New York Times and other news portals to read the tea leaves of the unfolding campaign. Obama becoming President will probably be the high watermark of American esteem and prestige in my lifetime, and I soaked every moment of his time in office. His speeches at Selma and Berlin and Egypt. His announcement of the capture of Osama bin Laden. Those speeches at the White House Correspondents’ Dinners.
And, of course, the State of the Union – that spectacle of American power and pageantry. Ostensibly a report card to be laid open for the American people, but really an annual statement of intent – a manifesto of a president in office and in power.
Biden might not have that same soaring oratory that marked Obama’s time as President. But for this State of the Union address, you will find me eager as always, watching and learning, basking in the theatre of American politics – still, so far, the hub and core of global power in my lifetime.
On New Beginnings
We often celebrate pivotal moments in our lives – birthdays, holidays, new year’s days – as hinges in history, natural moments in which one page of life ends and another opens anew. Sometimes we are seduced into thinking that change can only happen when such hinges unfold themselves. Not quite realising, of course, that Change can happen at any moment of our choosing – as long as we are ready for that Transformation to sweep in and take us off into new and unexpected adventures.
ChatGPT: An Exciting New Horizon in Technology
AI technologies are rapidly advancing, and ChatGPT is at the forefront of this exciting new horizon in technology. For those unfamiliar with ChatGPT, it is a large language model trained by OpenAI that can generate human-like text and engage in conversation with users.
While ChatGPT and other AI technologies offer exciting possibilities and have the potential to revolutionize many industries, they also raise concerns about the future of human employment. As AI technologies become more sophisticated, they may replace or augment human labor in a wide range of tasks. This could lead to job displacement and income inequality, and it is important that we address these issues as we integrate AI technologies into society.
However, it is important to recognize that AI technologies are here to stay, and we need to find ways to integrate them in ways that enhance, rather than harm, human lives. This may require finding ways to retrain and upskill workers, as well as implementing policies to mitigate the negative impacts of job displacement.
One way to do this is to focus on using AI technologies to augment rather than replace human labor. For example, rather than replacing customer service representatives with chatbots, companies could use chatbots to handle routine inquiries, freeing up human representatives to handle more complex or nuanced interactions. This would allow workers to use their unique skills and expertise, while also leveraging the efficiency and speed of AI technologies.
Ultimately, ChatGPT and other AI technologies offer an exciting new horizon in technology, but they also present challenges that we must address. By finding ways to integrate these technologies in ways that enhance, rather than harm, human lives, we can ensure that they are a positive force for society.
(And yes, I wrote this essay using ChatGPT. Naturally).
Poem II – Putera Puteri
T’was once a shining, splendoured thing Such hopes that Life itself daren’t cage Eyes that once gleamed with love ablaze Now dulled by slow, relentless age. And for its passing do I pray That you do find amidst your Rome a Life that shines, with splendour still And may Peace find its harboured home.
Byju Red Flag…
Red flag alert 🚩🚩🚩
Jangan Pernah Malu
Crisis of integrity? What crisis?
Holy coronavirus, Batman!
